1964 Chevrolet Malibu - Time Share

When the job has you busy and stressed out, it's time to take a vacation. Some people take the boat to the river for the weekend, or visit the Caribbean, or go camping to get away from the realities of everyday life. But when you've got 90-weight in your veins like the typical Car Craft reader, your idea of a vacation is going to the races, right? Casey Vantol is a dairyman, meaning he's milking cows 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's hard work for sure, and dealing with stubborn cows all day, every day, gets old, so a few times a year he has to get away with his buddies, and his race car provides the ticket to freedom.

We met Casey at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where his gang was racing a few cars at the Street Car Super Nationals (SCSN), one of the biggest non-professional, heads-up races in the country. We spotted his gorgeous '64 Chevy Malibu in the staging lanes right before a qualifying pass in the Outlaw 8.5 class, then we watched it run mid-5s in the eighth-mile (that's around high-8s in the quarter) and had to know more about this little sleeper.

Casey is one member of a tight group of guys that includes his brothers Dan and Tom, partner George Raygoza, and a few other helpers. They had two cars racing in Vegas: this Malibu and George's orange '68 Nova, both continuous projects in not only the quest for more speed, but, more importantly, a distraction from their everyday jobs. Consider the cars their equivalent of a vacation time share.

Casey always liked the early Malibu and bought this one 12 or 13 years ago after spotting it in a Southern California paper. The original California car (black plate and all) had a big-block already, but he and George almost immediately ripped into it, making it their own. It became a street racer around northern California's city of Orland, where the gang is from, but the combination saw continuous change, as they built engines and swapped them between the two cars.

They have two engines special enough to have their own names—Backup Betty and Christy—that are normally used in the heads-up racing they do on the West Coast. But in the constant progression of building new combinations to handle more power, they ended up with a lot of spare parts. At one point, Casey realized they had enough parts to build a fairly good but "nothing special" big-block, so they sent the stuff to Automotive Engine Specialties (AES) in Chicago to have them put it all together. That's the one that was in the car when we saw it run in Vegas. Its informal name is Almost Almost—because it makes almost the power of the other two.

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Almost Almost is a 505-incher with a stock block, Dart 310 heads, an old Barry Grant–modified Holley carb on a single-plane intake, and an out-of-the-box N.O.S. Fogger setup. Casey calls it "nothing special, just a regular motor." After they pieced it together, they stuck it in the Malibu with a TH400 and went to a Pinks All Out event, where it ran 10.30s on motor alone, and on 28x10.5 slicks. A Hughes Performance 'Glide with a more-or-less streetable converter and 3.55:1 gears keep it simple and sane, and while the stock-style suspension uses some aftermarket parts, it's nothing radical. This is all stuff you could run on the street if you wanted to.

When the West Coast Hot Rod Association (WCHRA) series started the Outlaw 8.5 class, which was going to run at the big SCSN race in Vegas, the guys thought it would be fun, so they switched to the requisite smaller 26x8.5 slicks and went looking for a good time. The smaller tires gave them traction problems on the first three runs in Vegas, but they pulled power out with the progressive nitrous controller to bring the spray in more gradually. The car eventually made two good passes, progressively going faster and winning the first round of eliminations with a 5.57 at 126 mph (Outlaw 8.5 runs eighth-mile, remember) before losing in the second round.

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They didn't come away with a trophy, but that wasn't the goal. Relaxation and time away from the hassles of home were the goals. Says Casey, "We just want to go have fun. I don't know if the car can be competitive or not, but we wanted to go do something. This is just a car to have fun with."

What does the future hold for the car? Well, it rarely sees street duty anymore, but they'll take it local car shows every now and then, and the guys are thinking of building a big motor, like a 632, to step it up a little more. For now, though, it's a great mind escape.

Tech Notes

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Who: Casey VantolWhat: 1964 Chevy MalibuWhere: Orland, CA

Engine: The big-block's displacement is 505 ci, by way of a stock block, Eagle crank and rods, and either JE or Ross pistons (they were leftovers, and Casey can't remember the brand). Dart 310 heads were barely touched before being bolted on, the cam is top secret, and an old-school Barry Grant carb sits on a Dart single-plane intake with an N.O.S. Fogger nitrous setup with a progressive controller to alter the power curve depending on the tires being used. Tony Schroeder at Automotive Engine Specialties (AES) in Elk Grove, IL, put it together for them. A full MSD ignition system with a 7530 box lights the spark, and a Meziere electric water pump and big Summit aluminum radiator cools it with a billet overflow tank in the trunk so that if the engine pushes a head gasket and forces water into the overflow, it'll drain at the back of the car and not onto the tires. Casey has never dyno'd the engine but estimates it making around 1,000 hp with the nitrous flowing.

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Exhaust: Lemons headers lead into 4-inch, oval tubing with an X-pipe and Spintech mufflers, which dumps in front of the rear axle.

Fuel System: A single Product Engineering fuel pump and filter feeds both the carb and the nitrous system, each of which has its own regulator and return line. The 20-gallon fuel cell, necessary when it was a street car, sends fuel to the pump through a -12 line, with a -10 out of the pump to the front of the car, where it splits into two -8 lines to the regulators.

Transmission: Pete at Hughes Performance hooked Casey up with one of its Powerglides with a Dedenbear case, 'brake, and a Hughes converter that stalls around 3,500 rpm. The shifter is a B&M Pro Bandit with buttons for the trans brake and line-lock.

Rearend: The rearend is a 9-inch Ford with a nodular iron case, a Strange spool and 35-spline axles, and 3.55:1 street gears. This ratio is used with the 8.5 tires, but when the taller and wider 28s are used, it's changed to a 3.89:1.

Suspension: Most of the suspension is from TRZ, including front control arms, rack-and-pinion steering, rear control arms, and an antisway bar. Hotchkis frame braces strengthen the rear crossmember. Casey says the springs in the front "are from some guy in Texas—I don't really know what they are." Rear springs are stock and have airbags that came with the car and are used for preload, and all four shocks are from Varishock, though Casey plans to swap the rears for a set of pricey Santhuff shocks in the near future.

Paint/Body: The body is stock, apart from an old, ill-fitting, 4-inch cowl hood that will eventually be replaced now that there are more aftermarket hoods for '64 Malibus than when they originally built the car. Eric Barron from Ramona (CA) Body Shop got the panels super straight before laying down the GM Torch Red paint.

Interior: Not much to report here. Matt's Fab Shop in Orland did the rollcage, and the guys did the rest of the interior using resto parts, Jaz aluminum buckets, and Auto Meter gauges. There are two buttons on the stock steering wheel—one for the transbrake (a duplicate of what's on the shifter) and another to back up with the 'brake. We like the fact that the stock rear seat is still there. Jimmy Robins from Chicago did the wiring.

Special Thanks: In addition to George Raygoza (the other half of the Vantol/Raygoza Racing team), Casey thanks his brothers Tom and Dan, NAPA Auto Parts, John's Tire and Muffler, AES, Pete at Hughes Performance, TRZ, Matt's Fab Shop, and all the wives and families. Finally, Mark Pettersen does the team's nitrous bottle refills "out of his own little speed shop" in Orland.